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Gates Expects Decline in Fighting

MOSCOW — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said on Tuesday that fighting in Libya would soon decline significantly, and he attributed criticism of the American-led military campaign to the “outright lies” by the Qaddafi government about civilian casualties.

As airstrikes degrade Libya’s air defenses and destroy other weapons, “the level of kinetic activity should decline,” Mr. Gates said. When asked for a timeline for this easing of the violence, he said, “I assume in the next few days.”

The Russian defense minister, Anatoly E. Serdyukov, called for an immediate cease-fire and harshly criticized the loss of civilian life.

But Mr. Serdyukov also reaffirmed the validity of the United Nations Security Council resolution that called for an international coalition to impose a no-fly zone over Libya and halt the slaughter of innocents.

Mr. Serdyukov’s balanced statement appeared to fall midway between comments a day earlier from Russia’s two leaders, Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin and President Dmitri A. Medvedev, whose contradictory statements appeared evidence of an unusual public rift.

Russia’s decision on the Security Council was not assured. Early diplomatic signals indicated Russia would veto the United Nations proposal, but in the end it abstained, allowing the measure to pass.

Mr. Putin said the Security Council resolution was “deficient and flawed,” and he chose pointed language to criticize the United Nations action. “In general, it reminds me of a medieval call for a crusade,” he said on Monday.

Mr. Medvedev countered that Russian diplomats had followed their instructions to the letter, and he defended the action as a response to a Libyan leadership that had committed crimes against its people.

A range of American officials said the public dispute between two Russian leaders who typically coordinate their comments and actions might reveal more about domestic politics than have any significant impact on the coalition carrying out the attacks in Libya.

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Yet, these officials did not discount what one labeled “abstainer’s remorse” over the Russian decision for the United Nations vote, which could accelerate criticism now mounting from other nations at what they describe as a military operation expanding beyond humanitarian assistance to regime change.

Mr. Gates was scheduled to meet Mr. Medvedev late Tuesday. No meeting was scheduled with Mr. Putin, who was traveling outside Russia.

Asked to assess the stance on Libya taken by the Russian defense minister, Mr. Gates responded that Mr. Serdyukov “threaded his way pretty well between them.” Even so, Mr. Gates noted, “It sounded to me like his comments were closer to President Medvedev’s.”

Mr. Gates rejected assertions that military strikes in Libya were responsible for any significant number of civilian casualties, as was suggested by his Russian hosts.

“It’s perfectly evident that the vast majority — if not nearly all civilian casualties — have been inflicted by Qaddafi,” Mr. Gates said.

“We have been careful about this,” he added. “It’s almost as though some people here are taking at face value Qaddafi’s claims about the number of civilian casualties, which, as far as I’m concerned, are just outright lies.”

He said the airstrikes had focused on air defense sites and surface-to-air missile batteries, most of which have been away from population centers.